When the senior management of Plaza Premium was still considering whether to accept Li Mu's cooperation proposal, they suddenly received news that Li Mu had bought the English remake rights of "Infernal Affairs" from Warner for $3.5 million!

And Warner is really happy, it took less than a day to think about it, and it took another day to complete the process, and now, the English remake copyright of "Infernal Affairs" has been returned to Makino Imaging......

Huanya was stunned when they heard the news, they didn't quite understand what tricks Li Mu was playing, and the front foot also gave themselves an offer to cooperate with the North American distribution rights of "Infernal Affairs", and the back foot directly bought the English remake rights of "Infernal Affairs" from Warner at double the price.

Everyone knows that the goal of the English remake right itself is to target the North American market, and the top management of Uniasia muttered in their hearts, and several people got together to brainstorm and ask what the purpose of Li's move was.

"What do you say Li Mu bought it for? Cooperate with us to push the original "Infernal Affairs" to the North American market, and he can make money empty-handed, what a good thing!"

"You ask me, who do I ask? Could it be that Li Mu wants to use this to coerce us into accepting his exploitation plan?"

"Oh my God, when will it have to wait? He got the copyright today, and he will start filming directly today, and it will take at least half a year to be released! If we find a suitable partner, "Infernal Affairs" may be released in North America next month! Everyone is not ...... at the same time at all."

"Does Li Mu think that the remake of the English version of "Infernal Affairs" has greater profit margins?"

"Unlikely, although the script of "Infernal Affairs" is very good, it will definitely not adapt to the soil in Hollywood, and when it comes to Hollywood, the production cost will be 35 million US dollars, and if the box office is less than 200 million, it will not make money at all. ”

"Whether it is possible or not, the key depends on how the script is changed, who will shoot it, and who will act it. ”

"Ladies and gentlemen, even if Li Mu really thinks that the remake of "Infernal Affairs" is profitable, it has nothing to do with our original "Infernal Affairs", our top priority now is to determine how our "Infernal Affairs" operates, whether to sell it directly to Hollywood, or accept Li Mu's cooperation plan. ”

"Li Mu's plan is too! We are the copyright owner, and he only gives us 30%! This guy's heart is really not ordinary black! Unless he is willing to give us no less than 50% of the share, I will not cooperate with him!"

"Not less than 50%? Then let's report to him according to 50%!"

"Okay, I'm for it!"

……

When Li Mu heard about Uniasia's final offer from Li Ziwei, he was not surprised at all, let alone angry, but said lightly: "Tell them directly, just say that I will withdraw the offer, and in the future, don't communicate with Makino Imaging about this movie, and Makino Imaging will not have any form of cooperation with them based on this movie." ”

"Okay!" Li Ziwei immediately nodded and said, "I'll reply to them." ”

Li Mu hurriedly said: "Don't be so anxious, there's no need, it's just a film company, whether it looks at the size of the company or the cooperation space, it's not enough for us to worry, just reply to them when you're in a good mood." ”

After that, Li Mu shook his head self-deprecatingly, and said with a smile: "The more I mix, the more regressive, a small film company has the confidence to bargain with me." ”

Li Ziwei smiled: "I understand your feelings, what you care about is whether Chinese films can get out of the Chinese circle, not how much money you can make from Chinese movies." ”

Li Mu nodded and said, " For some capitalists, movies are indeed quite profitable, but for me, the little money made by movies is really pitiful, it stands to reason that I should care about when Makino Technology and Taobao Technology will be listed, and when the market value will break through the 100 billion dollar mark, rather than calculating here whether a movie can make a thousand or eight million dollars if it is released in North America, even if I want to make this money, I should not do it myself, and it is more cost-effective to focus on other places from the perspective of pure value, but movies are powerful cultural output tools after all, and if you want to do a good job in cultural output, the main battlefield of movies must be firmly grasped。 ”

Saying that, Li Mu took a sip of water and said: "By the way, Ziwei, you help me contact Spielberg and ask him to tell the management of DreamWorks that I intend to prepare for the launch of the English version of "Infernal Affairs", this film will be the next key film of Makino Imaging after "Flying Tigers", I hope to continue to cooperate with DreamWorks, if they are interested, they can arrange a video conference according to everyone's time." ”

"Okay, I'm going to get in touch with Director Spielberg. ”

Speaking of this, Li Ziwei hesitated for a moment, as if she hesitated for a while, and then asked Li Mu: "Mr. Li, I take the liberty to ask you, is this the matter of the original "Infernal Affairs"? I always feel that it is a pity......

Li Mu smiled slightly and asked, "Ziwei, what do you think of the movie "Infernal Affairs"?"

"It's beautiful. Li Ziwei replied without thinking: "It should be the best Hong Kong movie in recent years." ”

Li Mu smiled and asked, "What do you think?" ”

Li Ziwei said: "The plot, the plot is great, the actors are also very good, and the lineup is strong, all of them are well-known actors in the Hong Kong film industry." ”

Li Mu asked again: "Do you think North American audiences will like the original "Infernal Affairs"?"

"This ......" Li Ziwei thought for a while and said, "I think it should be, right? After all, there is a precedent for the success of "Mr. Zombie". ”

Li Mu smiled slightly and said: "I have a different opinion from you, I think it is not easy for North American audiences to accept the original "Infernal Affairs", at least, judging from their current understanding of Huaxia, they can't accept it." ”

Li Ziwei asked, "Why do you say that?"

Li Mu said: ""Mr. Zombie" is actually very simple, what it exports to the outside world is the system of Chinese zombies, and it itself is a fictional folklore, so even if the North American audience does not understand Chinese culture, they will have a sense of substitution, this is the same as when we watch Hollywood science fiction films like "Alien", as long as we recognize the system of Alien, we will not have any different feelings than Westerners when we watch that film, but "Infernal Affairs" is different. ”

Li Ziwei hurriedly asked him, "Why?"

Li Mu said: ""Infernal Affairs" contains too many Chinese elements, and the taste of Hong Kong films is too strong. We understand these elements of Infernal Purgatory, but Westerners don't understand, and when Hong Kong is making feature films, there is a very unified commonality, that is, the deeper the better, the deeper it is, the more successful it will be from the level of hitting the soul, which is no problem for us Chinese audiences, because we accept and get used to such routines, but for Westerners, it is too difficult to make them accept so many things they don't understand at once. ”

Speaking of this, Li Mu added: "So when you look at Hollywood blockbusters, the main line is clear, the rhythm is bright, and most of the characters are not so complicated characters, which can be described as distinctive, especially action movies, basically nothing else, just come up and chirp and do it, but the more movies like this, the more they can sell well in the world, why? is because it is simple and direct, there are more than 200 countries, countless nationalities, and countless cultural styles in this world, and you know how these cultures have developed?"

Li Ziwei listened to the clouds, shook her head blankly and said, "I don't know very well, this question seems to be a bit esoteric......

Li Mu smiled: "Actually, it's not profound at all, let me tell you this, so many cultures in the world are like a huge towering tree, not only towering into the clouds, but also luxuriant, and the branches and leaves are extremely complex, but no matter how big a tree is, at its root, it also grows from a seed, germinates from a root system, grows into a thick trunk, and then slowly spreads and develops, the more it extends and develops, the greater the gap between different branches." ”

"If each branch is a different culture, then each culture is not just its own branch, but from its own branch to trace the roots of the trunk and tree that extends all the way, although everyone has the same roots, but because the subsequent development path is completely different, so it is very different.

Although every culture has developed from the front end to the end for thousands of years, everyone who lives in the present lives at the end of their own culture, so you can't take something at one end and let people at the other end adopt and accept it.

Li Ziwei shook her head gently: "According to your analogy, it should be difficult to accept. ”

Li Mu continued: " So back to the topic we just talked about Hollywood, Hollywood action movies are very shallow, there is no connotation and no special end culture, it does not even use the end of Western culture, but the front end of the thought, so it is a relatively front-end product of Western culture, so I just said that every culture is actually a branch and leaf growing on a tree, which is also destined to a law: the more you explore the front end of culture, the closer you are to other national cultures, and vice versa, the farther away you are from them。

If the front end is advanced to an extreme, to the root of human civilization, then the culture of all nations is actually the same, all cultures are inseparable from eating, drinking, and Lazar, all cultures are inseparable from sex, love, and hatred, and all cultures recognize that good people must have good retribution, and bad people must have evil retribution. Recognition is beaten back, and all cultures also recognize that good people are bullied by bad people, and bad people should be punished, so Hollywood shoots such a shallow thing that is not surprising with other national cultures, it may not have depth, but it can be accepted and recognized by everyone. ”

After speaking, Li Mu sighed lightly and said: "In my opinion, this is the key to the success of Hollywood commercial blockbusters, when other films such as Hong Kong films are gone on the road to find depth, it turns around and leaves depth behind, looking for things that can be accepted by people of any cultural background in the world, so you watch "Infernal Affairs" again It stands at the back end of Chinese culture, and perhaps some Western audiences can see the depth and praise the film, but most Western audiences will not accept its depth, which dooms it to be difficult to achieve commercial success in North America. ”

Li Ziwei suddenly realized, she finally understood the relationship between commerciality and culture, understood why Li Mu was not optimistic about the box office potential of "Infernal Affairs" in North America, and understood why Hollywood could become a leader in the field of commercial films, but the more she understood this, the more she wondered about a question, and after being puzzled, she asked Li Mu: "Mr. Li, since you think it is difficult for Westerners to accept "Infernal Affairs", why do you have to spend double the price to buy the remake copyright, and then invest in the remake of its English version?"